World of Our Own
by cakeoreo1004
Summary: Eighteen years ago, an eternal snowstorm enveloped the prosperous district of Bergis and forced its inhabitants to evacuate into the four surrounding districts. Eighteen years later, with the guilt of having committed an unforgivable crime, Elsa returns to the icy ruins of the district that her mother once called home. There, she meets Jack, a cursed boy who never left...
1. Chapter 1

I.

Ice crackled under Elsa's worn boots as she climbed over the mountains of iced debris. Blinding white flurries and roaring winds clawed at her limbs and threatened to push her down, blow her away, and rip her apart into a million particles, but she resisted. Her shawl billowing wildly around her shoulders, she rested briefly before gripping a protruding pole and pulling herself up another step. The temperature gradually dropped as the elevation increased, but Elsa only sweated from exertion. From where she was, she could see the peak if she looked up. With a deep breath, she proceeded to close the gap between herself and her imminent victory.

Moments later, Elsa stood with the soles of her boots firmly planted at the peak of the mountaintop. The surface was broad but sloped, and one wrong step could lead to her joining the lifeless carrion that formed the base of the mountain. All around, the air was thick with snowflakes, and yet there was a hollow clearness to it. Elsa brushed away the snowflakes on her eyelashes and squinted into the storm. Less than a quarter of a mile away were the skyscraping ruins of a forsaken district.

Bergis: that was the name Elsa's mother used to call this district. Most others called it the Waste because the surrounding land was where the deceased were discarded, creating mountains of frozen bodies including the one on which Elsa now stood. "Bergis" was a taboo word in the country of Arendelle for rumor had it that the district was cursed. For that, it was essentially cut apart from the rest of the world.

Elsa had learned about Bergis from her mother, who had emphasized to Elsa the importance of learning about one's roots, whether the government permitted it or not. A rebel since youth, Elsa had listened to the stories eagerly…

There had been a time in the past when Bergis was the most flourishing of the four districts that formed Arendelle. Each district was responsible for providing a service for the country, and because Bergis was located at the center of the circle of districts, it served as Arendelle's central trade market. Goods, people, and ideas flowed in and out of the district without rest, be it night or day, summer or winter. Bergis was prosperous and populous, and it kept the peace among the districts.

Then, near the end of a particularly warm winter eighteen years ago, snow began to lightly fall in Bergis. The residents of the districts thought the out-of-season weather was somewhat unusual (and for that, they called the phenomenon "the Frost"), but they didn't perceive anything very strange about it and went about their lives.

It wasn't until two weeks after the start of the snow – which by now falling much more heavily – that the city noticed that its vegetation was dying. In a month, the heavy precipitation became a howling, ceaseless storm of snow and hail, and the city's plants were no longer the only casualties. People were dropping dead in their homes and on the icy streets from a mysterious poisoning that slowly froze their blood. It did not take long for them to realize that the poisoning was a result from exposure to the enigmatic snow.

Bergis issued a mass evacuation into the surrounding districts immediately, and the central district was quickly deserted. One of the women who fled ran forty miles west into the district of Aunah while carrying a two-month old unborn child in her womb.

The Exodus of Bergis proved make difficulties in Arendelle. Over 100,000 people had been displaced, and they had taken refuge in the remaining districts – Aunah, Christoph, Hannes, and Ollaph – and nearly doubled the populations in each. Many of the refugees suffered deteriorating health and could do little to be useful. In the end, the districts placed them in slums and gave them menial jobs that payed so little that the people from Bergis always lived in poverty.

Months passed and summer came, and the storm enveloping Bergis continued to rage. The citizens of Arendelle concluded that the district was somehow cursed, and the once flourishing district was soon forgotten. Its surrounding lands which were still kissed by the snow were used as the dumping grounds of discarded belongings, decaying food, rotting corpses, or hazardous waste.

Months passed, and the impregnated woman, in an apartment the slums of Aunah, gave birth to a baby girl.

Elsa smiled slightly as she remembered what she would say whenever her mother reached that point in the story.

"And who was that little girl?" Elsa would always ask.

"That little girl – that miracle child – was you, Elsa," her mother would always reply with a gentle press of a finger on young Elsa's button nose. And Elsa would always laugh.

The smile vanished from Elsa's pink lips, and her nostalgia was replaced with sorrow. Eight years ago, the Frost had finally claimed her mother's life, for which her body had been viciously battling to save since the Exodus. At only ten years old, Elsa had been left an orphan, shunned by the citizens of Aunah and abandoned by the people living in the slums. Elsa was able to live by taking over her mother's old factory job, trying to live up to her wishes by being the good girl Elsa was always told to be. This life was boring and tedious, but the wage was enough to sustain her and she was somehow to make friends. At the time, she'd believed that she would be able to live a normal life.

That was until the past three years – a period when Elsa learned more about herself than she would have ever desired to know.

Elsa raised her hand and stared at her fingertips. Although she'd been out in the snow and cold for two days, they were still warm and pink, not cold and blue as they should have been. In fact, this much direct exposure to the Frost should have killed her hours ago, but her heart was still beating strongly. Elsa knew that the snow didn't affect her, and she knew that the snow would never affect her. Because of it, she'd had to commit a great sin that could not even be punishable by death. Death would not be nearly enough to compensate for the suffering she had caused.

Through the curtain of ice and snow, Elsa looked at the ruins of Bergis again. The scene before her was the embodiment of pure destruction, sorrow, abandonment, and lifelessness.

The world had forsaken Bergis just as Elsa had forsaken the world.

A soft laugh escaped through her lips, and soon the hesitant chuckles became unabashed howls of glee. Clutching her stomach, Elsa stooped over and cackled, feeling as if with each breath her body was being cleansed. It was the strangest sensation: here she stood before the ruins of the district her mother had once called home, Elsa's long platinum braid blowing wildly in the cursed snowy tempest that had cursed her and killed her mother, and yet, for the first time in her entire life, Elsa felt that she belonged here even though she'd never been here before. There was a sort of unearthly connection between the abandoned city and her that was forged before her birth. That connection now told her that she was free.

A strong gale slammed into Elsa and almost threw her off of the mountain. Her shawl loosened at her neck and was torn from her, and it threw itself wildly about and away into the whiteness. Elsa only laughed, hardly giving it a second thought. Such trivial things didn't matter anymore. The cold never bothered her anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

II.

Elsa lowered herself onto the steps in front of a building and buried her face in her hands in defeat. A low tremor sounded from her stomach and reminded her that she hadn't had a morsel to eat since yesterday morning.

Upon arriving in Bergis, Elsa had proceeded to explore the district. Although many of the streets consisted of crumbling apartment complexes, there was a variety of structures. On Sixth Street alone, there was a post office, a primary school building, a tailor's store, a shoe repair store, and a library. The library was one of the largest buildings in the district – even rivaling the size of Town Hall – and when Elsa poked her head inside, she saw shelves that towered several stories high and carried several thousands of books. A tall ladder allowed one to climb to the highest shelves. Tables and comfortable chairs were arranged in clusters throughout the rooms. A number of books lay open everywhere, and if Elsa hadn't known better, she'd have thought that someone had been here reading recently.

The hunger had hit her when she discovered what must have been a grocery store. Through the glass window, she could see that bread, fruit, vegetables, canned goods, perishable goods, and sweet treats lined the shelves, beckoning seductively. It was then that she'd remembered that she had brought no supplies with her, and she hurried to throw open the doors.

They were locked.

Now, Elsa lied on the steps of Town Hall and closed her eyes. She had no supplies, and she was hungry. In the midst of fleeing Aunah, she'd forgotten to think about what exactly she would do once she reached Bergis. Hunger would kill her before the cold would. Elsa couldn't decide which she preferred.

It didn't matter. She would die either way. Hopeless and alone, she closed her eyes and tried to get comfortable on the slick and icy stairs. Perhaps sleeping would ease the pain

_Mother, I'm going to see you now…_

She sat up again and lightly slapped her cheek. How pathetic, sleeping and waiting for death on the steps of Town Hall. She was free now, and she didn't have the time like this.

The library. If Elsa remembered correctly, there was a large fireplace in the library. If she went there, she could start a fire and warm herself. It was better than lying out in the cold.

She made her way back to Sixth Street. Whereas the blizzard had attacked her at full force on the outskirts of the district, inside the wind didn't blow so severely as an affect of the towering buildings. The snow fell lightly, and conditions were quite bearable.

When the library was in sight, Elsa's eyes followed older trail of footsteps in the snow that led to the front doors. She was about to continue walking in that direction, but the sound of a small impact made her turn her involuntarily turn her head.

Off the side of the building, approximately five yards from the end of the steps, stood a tall metal statue. Elsa hadn't noticed it being there before, but now she was intrigued. Slowly, she shuffled toward it. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it was a snow-dusted ten-meter image of a middle-aged man wearing a jeweled grown and a regal cape. His face wore a valiant expression, and his right hand held a long scepter. On the front of the stone pedestal on which the statue stood was a shiny bronze plaque that read:

IN HONOR OF THE FOUNDER OF BERGIS

KING ALLISTOR H. MELILLEUR

Something white exploded on the plaque and sprayed white particles in all directions. Elsa cried out in surprise and took a step back only to trip over her untied shoelaces. In shock, she stared at the plaque. What had been polished and clean moments before was now partially covered with snow.

A snowball? Had it been hit by a thrown snowball? That was impossible; everyone had evacuated the district eighteen years ago. Anyone who remained would have died.

A cold hard object hit the back of Elsa's head, and she doubled forward. Disoriented, she brushed her fingers over her hair and touched something soft and frigid. Snow. A snowball had definitely hit her.

"Who's there?" she demanded, scrambling to her feet and scanning the premises. As was to be expected, not a soul was in sight, but Elsa felt that she was being watched. "Show yourself! Who's there?"

"I'll tell you," boomed a male voice. The words resounded through the square and bounced off the buildings so to seem like they were coming from every direction, "But first, you have to tell me who you are."

"I – I refuse," she stammered. Her voice sounded weak and unconfident. "I asked you first."

"Don't be like that. You're trespassing on my property. Now, who are you?"

Elsa clenched her teeth and willed her shaking legs to straighten. There was no longer any doubt about it; there was someone here, but she couldn't tell whether or not he was dangerous. Fear spread throughout her body and made white bumps appear on her skin. With a shudder, she spoke loudly with as much courage as she could muster, "I come from the district Aunah. My name is Elsa."

"Elsa?"

Elsa heard a soft thump behind her, and she whirled around. A man stood in front of the library doors. His feet were bare, and in his right hand, he carried a long wooden staff that curled into the shape of the moon at the upper end. He wore brown trousers that extended halfway down his calves and were wrapped with dark strings. He also donned a deep blue sweater laced with ice and with a hood that was pulled over his head so his face was in the shadows. Elsa could not identify the stranger, and her heart raced in her chest. Breaths came through her lips in quick, rapid puffs, and her teeth chattered noisily. Terror, intimidation, shock, awe, curiosity – she experienced such emotions all at once.

The faceless stranger took a step toward her. Elsa wanted to turn and run, but her feet were stuck where they stood. He continued to draw closer, staff swinging by his side.

"Elsa. I've not read that name yet. It's pretty."

Heat rose in Elsa's cheeks. The man's deep voice warmed her heart to its core but sent shivers through her bones.

He was not ten feet from her when she found the strength to speak again. She raised her hands and said sternly, "I've told you who I am. Now, who are you?"

The man stopped where he was, and his swaying arms dropped to his sides. Through the shadow that covered his face, Elsa thought she saw him grin.

With his left hand, he gripped the side of his hood and slowly pulled it down, revealing his face. Elsa was surprised that, despite his deep voice, the stranger was a teenage boy who looked to be no older than she. He had a solid square jaw and skin was almost as pale as snow, as if he'd never seen the light of day. Short, unruly silver hair pointed in all directions and partially covered his pair of bright blue eyes. His eyes were sharp and penetrating, simultaneously alive and empty.

Simply, he was beautiful, but Elsa felt that he was more than that. There was an air about it that she couldn't identify. Something about him didn't seem entirely human. He seemed to be something more than that.

The boy stepped closer to Elsa, but she no longer felt the same fear that she'd felt before. He came until his face was but a foot from hers. Elsa could see her reflection in his pupils as he stared her down.

"My name is Jack," he said, his voice warmer than before. "What brings you to Bergis?"


	3. Chapter 3

III.

Unsaid words were lost in Elsa's throat as she stared into the blue eyes inches from her own. The stranger – Jack – gazed at her intently and silently, patiently waiting for her response.

She could not respond. She didn't hear his last question. The only questions in her mind were her own: wasn't Bergis supposed to be abandoned and empty? How could a person live here? Why was he living here? Was the cold making her hallucinate?

Cold fingers suddenly touched her cheek, and she drew in a sharp breath of surprise. For a moment, her racing her stopped. Then, as the icy fingertips gradually warmed, she exhaled slowly and closed her eyes. The cold, the warmth, and the touch were real. He was not a hallucination.

"You're real," she said at the same time as did he.

Jack briskly removed his hand and took two steps backwards, fumbling with his staff as it dragged in the snow. He threw his hood back over his head, his pale face filling with colors in the shadow. "I – I'm sorry," he stammered, still moving backwards. "It's just that I haven't seen a living human in a long time, and I thought that you might be a hallucinating." He stopped and hesitantly raised his head to meet Elsa's blank gaze.

"It's alright," Elsa sighed. She tried to keep her voice even to hide her surprise and frustration. Here she was in the supposedly forsaken district, having run many miles in a desperate attempt to escape humanity, only to find herself in the presence of another human. She didn't know whether to be awed or angry, so she decided to at least have her questions answered. "What are you doing here in Bergis?"

"What am I doing here?" Jack repeated. He glanced around at the snow-laden ruins and shrugged. "Living, I guess."

Elsa pressed her fingers to her temples and shook her head. "No, no. I mean, why are you here? Why are you living here? I thought that Bergis was unpopulated."

A sad smile spread across Jack's lips. "I'll tell you why I'm here if you tell me why you're here."

"I refuse," she huffed, crossing her arms indignantly.

"Then, my lips are sealed."

The specks of light in Jack's eyes danced, and he let loose a small mocking laugh as he observed Elsa getting angrier. She wanted to wipe the smug smile off of his face. The way he spoke was strange. His manner of speaking wasn't highly unusual; it was the fact that he seemed to be able to carry a normal conversation with her that caught her attention. As a poor daughter of a Bergis-refugee, Elsa had to smuggle discarded books to read into her apartment, and through them she'd learned that one who lived in isolation did not develop proper social skills, such as having conversations. So how could –?

"Ah-choo!"

Elsa sniffed and rubbed her nose. Ah, she'd sneezed. Rubbing her arms, she lifted her gaze toward the sky. It seemed like gray clouds above were growing heavier.

"It must be nighttime," Jack said, although Elsa could not tell how he knew. "The storm is going to start soon." He paused and stared at her shivering figure. "It looks like the cold bothers you more than does me. Let's go inside the library and warm up by the fire."

"The cold doesn't bother me," Elsa grumbled, but Jack had already taken her hand and was leading her up the steps toward the library doors. He grabbed hold of one of its handles and pulled it open, and a great blast of warmth from inside hit Elsa with nearly the force of a crashing wave. She could feel the ice melting off of her clothes and heart; it seemed like so much time had passed since she last felt heat.

Still being led, Elsa walked into a room that made her gasp, and that gasp was her last as her breath was taken away. They had entered into a cavernous circular room lit with bright electrical lights protruding from the walls. A blazing fire danced in a vast fireplace on the wall opposite the door. Plush red carpet an inch thick covered the floor, and propped on it were square tables and cushioned chairs of various shapes and sizes. Numerous piles of books and single books open to random pages lay scattered. Bookshelves with thirty levels of shelves filled with bound books started from the ground and reached high toward the ceiling, which domed and was painted with images of cherubs reading more books.

Books. Books were everywhere.

"Oh!" she gasped, at a loss for words.

"Welcome to my humble home," Jack chuckled. He let go of her hand and rested his on his waist. "Do you read?"

"I can read," she replied, still somewhat dazed. "I know how. I just haven't read much. I mean, I haven't read many books. I used to work in a factory, you see, and reading was forbidden."

"Then, how do you know how to read?"

"My mother taught me."

"So did mine. Where is your mother now? Did you leave her behind when you came here?"

Elsa felt her heart ice over again. "No," she said coldly. "She left me behind. She's dead."

"Oh." Jack scratched his hair uncomfortably. After a long pause, he said, "So is mine."

An icy wind blew chilled Elsa to her bones and made the fire dance wildly. "Excuse me. I forgot to close the door." He pulled shut the wooden gate, and the room became warm once again. "Feel free to pick a book and read it beside the fire. I'll prepare us something to eat."

He turned and disappeared though a smaller door to the side, leaving Elsa alone. For a long while, she stood there in the silence not knowing what to do in a stranger's abode. The place was unfamiliar to her, and yet it was so familiar. She wondered if her mother spent long hours in this library before the Frost.

Jack had told her that she could take a book, and the bounty of literature before her made her mouth water. Timidly, she walked to the table nearest her and picked up a book that was lying open. The text was quite large, and the pages were of high-quality papers and decorated with colorful illustrations. The book itself was fairly thin, and Elsa closed it to see the cover.

An image of a tall and elegant woman stared with sharp, cold eyes back at Elsa. The woman had pale smooth skin and wore a floor-length white dress and white fur coat embellished with expensive jewels and fine metals. In her right hand, she held a golden scepter, and on her head she donned a silver crown. At her feet stood two children: a young girl and boy dressed in threadbare winter clothes. Above the image of the three and written in fancy script was the title: _The Snow Queen_.

She scoffed. What a befitting book to be in this place.

With weak interest, she opened the book again to its first page and skimmed its contents. The tale began with a group of demons who possessed an evil mirror. When she tried to flip the page, a sharp pain on her finger made her cry out in surprise. The pain was acute and quickly subsiding, but Elsa's mind clouded with panic. She stared at her index finger.

On the surface of her skin was a thin cut with a tiny drop of blood seeping out. She turned her attention to the edge of the page that her finger had brushed against. A small portion at the edge of the paper was already dissolving.

Quickly, Elsa threw the book onto the table and rubbed the open cut against the back of her other hand with such force that her skin stung. When the blood stopped flowing, she turned her back and hurried toward the fire. Her hands were cold, and they needed to be warmed. Perhaps the heat would stop the blood flow.

The fire was indeed warm. She wondered if the past few days in the intense cold had made her forget how warmth felt. She carefully sat herself down on a cushion and held her palms out toward the hearth while allowing her eyes to wander. The books on the towering shelves stood side by side so that although she could not see their covers, she could read the titles written on the spines. Having only read a small handful of books in her life, none of the titles on the shelves sounded familiar. She speculated that it would take one several lifetimes to read all that was here.

"Have you found a book to read yet?"

"No. There is so much here that it's difficult to decide."

He carefully sat down on a cushion beside her. She saw that he was holding a tray, and when he placed it on the ground, she gazed at what was on it. There was a porcelain tea set of a pot and two cups painted with a floral design. A platter of dark brown biscuits accompanied the set along with two misshapen chunks of foil.

"Chocolate!" Elsa exclaimed. She instinctively reached for the sweets but caught herself and drew back her hand.

Jack raised his eyebrow and took a bite of a biscuit. "You don't have to always act so scared. Have one. There is much more from where this came from."

Elsa was so very scared. In Aunah, chocolate was a luxury due to discontinued trade in Bergis. She'd only tasted chocolate once when her mother snuck her some after scavenging the garbage behind a candy store. The sweetness and stickiness of the treat was the most delicious Elsa had tasted until then, and a few days later, she'd returned to the candy store alone to look for her. The shop owner spotted her and gave her a solid beating. The blows from his fists to her body had left to scars on her skin, but the emotional scars inflicted were permanent.

Jack tossed the balls of foil into the fire and held a biscuit out toward Elsa. He frowned as though confused and said, "Hurry and eat. You look like you haven't eaten in a long time."

Hesitantly, she took the biscuit. It felt hard and smooth. She bit off a small piece and chewed slowly, her saliva mixing with the delicacy and turning it soft. The taste was not as strong as the raw chocolate her mother had given her, but it was still undeniably chocolate just the same.

"It's good," she sighed.

"Here, have some more," he offered, pushing to plate of biscuits closer to her. He proceeded to pour the drink, and Elsa watched the caramel colored liquid stream out of the pot's spout and fill the cups one at a time. "Frankly, this tastes really weird, but it warms you pretty quickly."

Elsa picked up her cup and took a cautious sip. Although she only swallowed a small bit of the drink, her throat scorched with the intensity of a factory furnace. She grabbed her neck and coughed and sputtered, but the pain lasted for only a moment. The heat subsided and left her mouth filled with a sweet aftertaste and her stomach warmed with a gentle ember. Intrigued, she took another, bigger swig of the drink, and this time, the burning wasn't as intense. The strange taste persisted, but it was strangeness that she found addicting.

Jack finished his serving and cleared his throat. "You're not talking much," he noted. "Outside, you were yelling like you were angry."

"It's not that I'm not talking," she said. "My head is just a mess right now, and I cannot turn my thoughts into words. I came to Bergis mentally prepared to live alone, but then you appeared. How? How are you –?"

"How am I here?" Jack finished. He shrugged. "I was born here, and I've lived here ever since."

"No, no, no. Let's try this again." Elsa thought for a moment before speaking again. "Why are you here? The people of Bergis evacuated eighteen years ago because the snow killed them. But you…" Her voice trailed off as she examined his sitting figure: tall with long, slim limbs and pale complexion. "You're fine. You… you're even sane."

He turned his gaze toward the fire. The red flames reflected off of his eyes. "I'll tell you if you tell me why you're here."

Here they went again. Elsa rolled her eyes in annoyance. "I've told you that I refuse."

"And I've told you that I wouldn't answer your questions until you answered mine."

The room filled with tense silence. Elsa glared at Jack while he stared into the fire. Suddenly, he smiled and announced, "They're ready." Holding a knife, he reached toward the base of the blaze and gently rolled out the two foil balls. He tried to rip the foil and cried out in surprise. "Ah, it's hot," he grumbled, and he licked his pink fingers and tried again, this time gripping the foil with his fingernails and opening the folds in quick motions. Steaming inside both was a large baked potato.

"It's hot," he repeated, and he nudged a potato toward Elsa. He smiled.

His smile only frustrated Elsa. Angrily, she stared at the steaming potato. Then, she realized something stranger than the taste of the tea.

"Bergis was evacuated eighteen years ago," she murmured.

"Yes, so?"

She pointed at the potatoes. "I know that ice can preserve food, but even the Frost cannot keep a potato from rotting for eighteen years. The biscuits should have gone stale long ago, but they didn't. I've noticed that this old library has no dust, either. It's too clean." She narrowed her eyes. "You don't dust this entire place, do you?"

He laughed. "Nope."

"Then, what?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me you're here."

That was it. Elsa's bubble of negative emotions exploded, and she felt frustration, irritation, anger, and fear all at once. Her breaths came out hard and shakily, and her mind was clouded. Jack stared at her in apprehension.

"Fine," she spat. "Are you so desperate to know why I'm here? I'll tell you why I'm here." She grabbed the handle of the knife, and with trembling hands and racing heart, she slashed the blade through her palm. The pain came immediately, and Elsa bit back a cry.

Wide eyed, Jack stared at her wound, through which blood was flowing freely. "What are you doing?"

Wordlessly, Elsa held her reddened hand over the potato. The blood from the cut dripped from her palm and onto the food. Immediately, the skin of the potato sizzled softly and began to ebb away. The blood soaked into its now bare, yellow insides, and the hole quickly grew wider and deeper until the potato had a gaping cavity stained with crimson. The blood had dissolved the potato clean through.

"That's why I'm here," she whispered.

She stood and sprinted toward the door without a backward glance. Blood still dripped from her wound, and as she ran across the room, thick drops of red fell onto the carpet and burned the patches on which they fell.


	4. Chapter 4

IV.

Gray skies and black clouds gathered over Bergis and cast a shadow over the district. The snow fell more heavily than before. Elsa sat on the steps of the library again as she'd done before her first encounter with Jack. She wondered why she kept coming back here.

No, that wasn't right – she wondered why she couldn't leave here. After spilling her blood and running out of the library, she was determined to run away and never turn back, to leave and forget Jack and start over in trying to find somewhere that she could belong without hurting anyone. That had been her plan, but before her feet left the library steps, her body halted and sat itself on the cold stones. For some reason, she could not make herself leave, and this greatly bothered her. She had been running from humanity, but she could not run away now.

At her feet, the snow was dotted with red. Stoic, she raised her hand and stared at her palm. An angry red slash cutting across contrasted shockingly against her pale skin. Blood still dripped from the wound, for it was quite deep, but the flow was lighter than it had been before. Elsa was sure that this cut would leave a scar.

The snow on the ground behind her crunched, and in the next moment, Jack was sitting beside her. He casually held his staff against his shoulder and leaned his head on the wood. With a flick of his wrist, he tossed something that rolled down the steps and came to a stop at the base. It was the potato, now hardly possessing the visuals of a proper potato with its crimson-lined gaping hole.

He didn't look in her direction, nor did he say a word, but Elsa knew what he was doing: he was waiting.

"My mother once lived here," Elsa began. She stared down the street to where it met with another street lined with apartments. "I don't know exactly where she lived, but she said that her home was somewhere high. She made a living off of her sewing. I know this much. She never told me much about her life from when she lived here. I don't even know who my father is, but I suppose that isn't important.

"The Frost began when she was two-months pregnant with me. She was one of the last evacuees, and she left all of her belongings and money behind and ran alone to Aunah, the nearest district. For about seven months, she worked as a seamstress to pay for living expenses in the slums. When she had me, she had to take on a second job as a factory worker to put food on the table for both of us. Being refugees from Bergis, we were looked upon unfavorably by the people of Aunah, and they especially scorned us because my mother had me while never having been married. She spoiled me rotten, though, and we were strangely happy people for being so poor."

Elsa paused to allow her heart to calm down before she went into the most painful part of her story. "I didn't realize back then, but she had been suffering from Frost poisoning since the very beginning. She died eight years ago when I was ten." A shuddering sigh escaped through her lips. So much time had already passed since then, but the pain of the memory never lessened. "Afterwards, I began working in the factory."

"You worked in a factory when you were ten?" Jack asked.

"Well, the work must be done somehow." Elsa replied. "Child labor is common in Aunah." She silently wondered how Jack knew about factories. Aunah was the manufacturing district, so almost everyone worked in a factory. Bergis used to be the trade center of Arendelle's districts, so it didn't have factories. "Children who were Bergis refugees were given the most hazardous jobs available, so I worked at the chemical plant. That was the factory that developed and made all kinds of chemicals. It was dangerous to even breathe the air in the structure, and workers died every week. The few friends I managed to make died as well." Elsa tried to remember the names and faces of the other young girls who once worked alongside her: Ariel and her bright red hair; Belle and her bright and curious eyes; Tiana and her bright white smile. They all shone so brightly while frail Elsa stood in the shadows. Perhaps she was envious of them back then; when they died, Elsa had only felt numbness, not pain. Even now, recalling their blurry images, she felt the same.

"I was quite strong against the chemicals. I never became sick during all my years there. Eventually, when I was a bit older, my employer promoted me. I was getting higher pay, but the jobs were more dangerous. I was responsible for retrieving chemicals from the Ice Box. The Ice Box is the freezer vault where chemicals are stored. In there, every surface – the floor, the walls, the shelves, the ceiling – is lined with blocks of Frost. Frost was the only coolant cold enough to be able to withstand the effects of the chemicals."

"Hmm," Jack hummed. And that was all.

"The Frost…" Elsa's voice cut off as her teeth began clattering loudly, and small white bumps appeared on every inch of her arms. Shuddering uncontrollably, she hugged herself and tried to regain control of her body. She wanted to keep the memories locked away. She'd run away from Aunah to throw away the key, so why was she now having to open her heart again?

"The Frost doesn't kill immediately, and it slowly spreads throughout one's body until they eventually die. Like my mom, the process can take years, but death will eventually come. Knowing this, I felt like I had been given a death sentence. I suppose that I didn't care, really. My mother was dead, my friends were dead, everyone hated me for being a whore's daughter, and life was horrible. At the time, death didn't sound so bad, and working in a place where the Frost was very concentrated, I knew that it would come soon.

"Two months later, I was still working in the Ice Room with no signs of health deterioration. The other workers whispered about me, and even my employers were suspicious." She chuckled bitterly. "I'm almost positive that it was one of them who locked me in the Box overnight one day. From the inside, I pounded on the doors and screamed as loudly as I could, but no one came to rescue me. Hours passed, and when night came, everyone left to go home, and I was left alone. I couldn't free myself, and since I withstood the cold well, I decided to sleep."

Jack chuckled. "That wasn't a smart idea."

"It doesn't matter since I didn't die. The next morning, someone opened the vault door and nearly fainted when she saw me sleeping against the wall. I was taken to the hospital, and the doctors there speculated that I was somehow immune to the Frost. They thought that since my mother was affected with Frost poisoning when she lived in Bergis, I'd developed immunity in her womb. This began a series of experiments and studies of my body, and the doctors took quantities of my blood to create vaccines that would make others immune to Frost as well." She shuddered at the memories of needles prodding her body and machines beeping unemotionally all around her. "That year was one of the worst I'd experienced until then, but at the same time, I was happy to be needed. No one looked at me like I was worthless anymore. They looked at me as if I was their… their savior.

"The vaccine took a year to develop, but it was eventually distributed firstly to the workers in the chemical plant. It was successful, and the number of deaths each month dramatically decreased. Then, other people whose work required contacting chemicals or laboring near the Frost received the vaccine. The vaccine was limited and expensive, so not everyone had access, but over a quarter of everyone in each district had it running through their veins by the end of the second year. They all called it a miracle. They called… they called _me_ a miracle."

Elsa's breaths were short and rapid, and her heart pounded inside her chest and only made breathing more difficult. She clenched and unclenched her fist over and over, swallowing pained cries when her nails dug into her wound. Her mind blanked, and her words caught in her throat and choked her as she tried to speak. "A – and th – then, at the end of the third year, they… they… th – they…"

"They?"

"They died." Her words were almost inaudible and lost in the whistling wind. She felt ashamed and guilty for speaking them when she had no right to feel the stormy emotions she now felt. "Every single person who took the vaccine died. Their blood boiled and they fell over on the streets, dead. The doctors were horrified and couldn't see why the dead had died so suddenly and consecutively. Then, they later realized why I was immune to the poison of the Frost. It was because –" She tried to continue, but her body shook so hard that her words were lost in her tremors.

"Because your blood was more poisonous," Jack finished. He fixated his gaze on the potato.

She stared at his still expressionless face. Hesitantly, she said, "Don't you have anything to say?"

"Should I?" He raised his head toward the thundering sky. "The storm is getting stronger. We should go back inside."

"Were you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, sure. Some people died. So what?"

"I killed them, Jack," Elsa choked, unable to believe that she had heard those words. A bitter and frustrated cloud for his apathy boiled inside of her chest. Her icy hands twisted in vain to battle the falling temperature. "Because of me, they will never breathe again. I should have known what my blood could do –"

"It's not your fault –"

"If only I'd realized in time –"

"There is no way you could have –"

"If only I'd never been born –"

"DON'T SAY THAT!"

Elsa jumped, startled by his sudden volume. Jack reached out and grabbed her shoulders, brashly pulling her close so his eyes were inches from hers. Those blue irises speckled with gold and hazel were not cold nor empty, but they burned with the intensity of a thousand fires. Elsa wondered how such blue eyes could appear so ablaze.

He breathed heavily, shoulders heaving, white clouds escaping through his lips with each exhale. The long fingers clenching Elsa's shoulders held her so tightly that she hurt. Uncomfortable with their close proximity, she broke away from her gaze momentarily only to have her it slowly return to him.

"Don't," he said with his voice quieter and more controlled than before yet still shaking. "Don't ever, _ever_ believe that you shouldn't have been born."

"Jack –"

"Don't. Please."

His voice cracked. The fire had faltered to a desperately flickering ember. An edge of helplessness now entered his stance, and he looked on at her with a pained expression. Elsa could not speak.

"Because if you do," he continued softly, "I may just have to kill you."

Dark tendrils clenched her heart, and Elsa felt another wave of fear. Unlike earlier when she ran from Aunah after receiving numerous death threats and being the target for street stoning, she now had no place to run in Jack's iron grasp. However, contrary to his words, there was not the slightest hint of a murderous air around him. Instead, his eyes were filled with desperation and pleading and seemed to break at the word "kill."

She touched his hands and whispered, "Okay."

He nodded and drew back his hands. Using his staff as support, he rose to his feet and extended his hand to Elsa. She hesitantly took it, and he held her hand firmly and pulled her up. Around them, the storm raged.

Even through the wind, his voice was clear. "Thank you for being honest with me. You did well."

"You forced me to spill my guts," Elsa countered. "We had a deal, remember?"

She stared at him firmly. She'd confessed her past in order to find out some truths about Bergis. What was the cause of the Frost? Will it ever stop? Who was Jack? Why was he living alone here, and how was he surviving the poisonous snow? Endless questions jumbled in her mind, and she was sure that Jack knew their answers.

But he only smiled ambiguously and tapped his finger to his lips. "Perhaps another day. Let's go inside for now." He turned and climbed the stairs toward the library entrance.

Elsa followed slowly behind him. His unexpectedly mild reaction to her story left her deeply confused. He was nothing like the citizens she'd left in Aunah. Not once was there a hint of disgust in his voice. Not once did he reject her for her crimes. Not once did he express that she should never have been born. She couldn't decide whether she should be offended or relieved. He didn't reject her, but he didn't say that he accepted her either. Maybe he didn't care at all.

_Or_, Elsa thought, _he didn't find in my story to be horrified about._

That theory led to three conclusions: he knew about Elsa's curse from the start, he didn't find mass deaths appalling, or he was guilty of an even worse crime.

"Elsa?"

"Yes?"

Jack stood at the threshold with his foot propping open the door. He faced her direction, his silver hair concealing part of his eyes. He was so beautiful that Elsa could not imagine him committing any sort of evil.

"Will you be living here from now on?" he asked. His gaze was patient and expectant.

There was nowhere else to go, and it appeared that Jack would not reject her. "Yes," she replied.

A smile spread on his lips, and he motioned her to come. She quickened pace and slipped past him into the library, and he closed the wooden door behind them. The howling of the gales outside promptly stopped, and the only sounds to be heard was the crackle of the hearth and their own rhythmic breathing.

From the corner of her eye, Elsa spotted _The Snow Queen_ on the table. She retrieved it and held it out toward Jack. "I was going to keep it hidden," she admitted, "But I damaged your book. I cut my finger on a page, and the paper dissolved."

He gently pushed it toward her, still grinning. "It is your book as much as it is mine now." With a dramatic sweep of his arm at the room, he laughed and spun excitedly. "Everything you see here – everything here and out there – is yours and mine. It's – it's ours." He stopped and leaned on his staff, blue eyes shining. Breathily, he said, "You and I – this is our world where no one can come between us and our right to live."

His smile was contagious, and Elsa found herself grinning just as stupidly as he. When he offered her his hand, she took it without a second thought. After years of being rejected, she'd found a place where she belonged and didn't have to be afraid.

There was no one here who she could hurt. There was no one here who could fear here. It was just her and Jack in this cold and forsaken world of their own.

And for the first time in forever, she was happy.


	5. Chapter 5

V.

Elsa closed her eyes and fell backward onto the blanket. If she had done that back in Aunah, her back would have broken from the impact against the wooden board that served as a bed. Here, her fall was cushioned by a springy mattress, and she imagined herself falling on a white summer cloud.

Opening her eyes, she sat up on the bed and gazed at her surroundings. She was in a small and cozy square room with a high ceiling and a floor-to-ceiling window on one wall. The bed faced the window and the bare desk and matching chair beside it. At the foot of the bed was a long empty drawer with a lid that opened upward. Across the room to the right of the closed door was a cream bookcase of two shelves stuffed with various books. On the wall opposite the window was a lone hanging mirror that was as tall as Elsa.

Earlier, Jack had led her up a long spiral of steps until they reached a long corridor of identical doors with different colored doorknobs. He had taken out a ring of multicolored keys from his pocket and given the white key to Elsa. "The door with the white doorknob leads to your room," he'd said. "Make yourself comfortable. I need to run some errands, so I will return in a little bit."

Elsa slid off of the bed and walked to the mirror. It took all she had not to cringe in disgust, for her reflection was appalling. Loose threads jutted out haphazardly from the black and turquoise wool of her dress. Several patches had gotten lost in the storm, exposing uneven holes in the fabric. Her blond braid fell limply over her shoulder, but it was so unkempt and dripping with melted snow that it hardly looked like a braid at all. She tried to tuck in the loose strands as well as she could, but her reflection improved little.

A low voice behind her chuckled, "You could use a bath."

At that moment, Elsa noticed Jack's reflection grinning on the windowsill behind her. She gasped and spun around so quickly that her foot caught in her long skirt. Jack leaped and grabbed her hand just in time to stop her from falling. When she regained her footing, she shook off his grip and aggressively straightened her skirt.

"I'm positive that I locked the door!" she said breathlessly. "How did you get in here?"

"Through the window."

"But this is the fourth floor."

"I ride the wind."

Elsa sighed and rubbed her temples. "Please don't do that anymore. You might catch me at a bad time."

"When would be a bad time?"

"What if I was in the middle of changing?"

"Do you have clothes to change into?"

She bit her lower lip and quickly glanced at the empty drawer. She hadn't thought about the prospect of not having any to wear other than the tattered rags on her back.

Jack grinned as if he'd read her mind. He reached under his cloak and pulled out a thick bundle of cloth. "I dropped by the clothing store and grabbed whatever I could off the racks. I didn't know what size you wear, but we can go later so you can choose to have whatever you want."

"Thank you," Elsa gushed, and she reached forward to take the bundle. As she took the gift, she felt Jack's gaze trained on her hand.

"Does it still hurt?" he asked.

"Not much." He was referring to the knife wound Elsa had self-inflicted, which was now bound by a red handkerchief. "It was rash of me to do what I did. I – I usually have more self control. I don't know what's wrong with me today."

"I told you, you've been through a lot in a short amount of time. Don't be so hard on yourself." He patted her shoulder and walked toward the locked door and unlocked it. "When you finish your bad time, come downstairs, and I'll show you around Bergis." He exited the room but left the door open. Elsa listened for the sound of footsteps as he descended the staircase, but it never came. She wondered if he was standing and waiting beside the door, so she quickly jogged over to check.

The corridor was empty.

Was Jack a ghost? Elsa shivered at the possibility. That would explain how he'd lived alone in Bergis for eighteen years and also how he seemed to approach out of nowhere from all directions. But at the moment, she didn't care so much about the existence of ghosts as her want of company, and she really didn't care whether Jack was dead or not.

Elsa laid the choices of clothing on the bed. She stifled a giggled as she scanned the dresses of a wide assortment of sizes that ranged from extra-large to children's. Still, Jack had brought enough that a blue woolen dress Elsa's size was among them. Closing and relocking the door, she threw off her old dress and slipped the new one over her head. Once it was on her body, she felt a strange sensation. It wasn't strange like she felt something strange. When her arms were through the sleeves and all the buttons were clasped, she realized that she was surprisingly warm – not uncomfortably warm but warmer than what she remembered the room to be.

Maybe Jack had bewitched the clothes somehow. The idea of Jack being able to use magic did not surprise her. As an experiment, Elsa went to the window and unclasped the lock. She intended to open them just a crack, but the howling gusts outside threw them inward so fast and so forcefully that one grazed her forehead and scratched her skin. In a panic, she tried to close them again, but the wind blew inside with flurries of snow that blinded her.

After a minute of trying, she decided to give up. If she left the window open the way it was, much snow would definitely get in the room, but Jack would probably fix things somehow. In the meantime, Elsa didn't see a reason not to test the limits of her seemingly cold-proof attire. Bracing herself against the wind, she pulled herself on the ledge and hopped down onto the snow-laden roof. Although standing in several inches of snow and ice, her feet did not feel cold at all. The wind did not penetrate the dress, either. Only her face felt somewhat nippy, and her braid blew around wildly behind her.

A laugh escaped her lips. Standing in the cold and yet being completely unaffected by it made her feel invincible.

She took one step, slipped, and went sliding off the roof.

Screaming, Elsa clawed for whatever was available as she helplessly tumbled down the steep icy slope, but she only grabbed handfuls of snow. A fraction of a second before she went flying off the roof, her hand found the edge. She managed to grab it with both hands as she fell, and she hung there with her entire body being kept suspended by the strength of eight fingers. The ground seemed miles below her. The wind continued to blow.

"Jack!" she screamed in panic, but her voice was lost in the wind. "Jack! JACK!"

"Elsa!" The familiar voice called out faintly from the ground. "Let go!"

"Let go of the ledge? You must be insane!"

"Elsa, I can't help you if you're hanging there. I'll catch you when you fall, so trust me. You have to let it go!"

The grip in Elsa's fingers was weakening, and she didn't know if she would be able to hold out for another minute. Jack hasn't failed me yet, she thought. Closing her eyes, she counted down from three and let go of the edge.

She screamed all the way down. Her limbs flailed in all directions as she tried to regain balance in midair. After a few seconds, she clenched her teeth, shut her eyes again, and braced herself for death. Instead of a hard impact against the stone library steps, she was caught in a firm support. She slowly opened one eye and saw Jack grinning down at her. He'd caught her in his arms.

"I said to you to come downstairs when you were done," he joked, "But I didn't think you'd come through the window."

"That wasn't my intention."

"No need to be ashamed. It's much faster than the stairs, I admit."

"Just please, put me down."

Jack lowered his arms, and Elsa hopped down onto the ground so that her feet were surrounded by snow once again (and, once again, unaffected by the cold). She brushed the white flakes from her shoulders and head and cleared her throat. "So, here I am," she said. "I remember that you promised me a tour of the district."

It was a rather bleak but strange tour. As Elsa allowed Jack to lead her down the streets of Bergis, she noticed that most of them looked very similar. They were either lined with closed shops and service centers or housing buildings. Elsa squinted to see past the ice-covered windows of businesses and caught glimpses of clothes still hanging from racks and loaves of bread still sitting on shelves. In terms of build and content, Bergis was little different from Aunah, except for the former's lack of factories and slums. Bergis looked like a regular district aside from the fact that it was trapped in an eternal deadly snowstorm and was inhabited by virtually no one.

"That's the post office," Jack said as he passed the small cement block squeezed between two other businesses. "Obviously, it's not in use, but it's fun to play in the boxes of packing peanuts once in a while. Over there is a private book store. You can think of it as a second smaller library. There are some interesting finds in there. You can take whatever you want from these stores as long as you have a key. Oh, and at the end of this block, you can see a grocery store. It's one of many here in Bergis."

Elsa remembered the potatoes and biscuits that Jack had provided in the library. "You promised me that if I told you about my past, you'd tell me about how the food doesn't rot."

"Oh, yeah." He glanced over his shoulder and grinned emotionlessly. "When the snow started falling, time here just sort of… stopped. My mom told me about it afterwards. It's strange, but it can be convenient. Milk doesn't spoil. Food doesn't rot. Electricity doesn't fail. Dust doesn't build." Jack kicked a bundle of snow on the side of the road and revealed a green flowered shrub. "Plants don't wilt. Basically, anything that can and should decay doesn't. It's as if the snow froze time for everything that is a part of Bergis."

"Except for people," Elsa said, thinking about her mother.

Jack chuckled half-heartedly. "Except for people," he repeated in agreement, and he nodded. "I'll have to rephrase my observation: the snow stops the decay of everything in Bergis except for its people."

"What about you?" Elsa asked after a moment. "The Frost doesn't kill you. Did it freeze time for you?"

"Probably not. Living here sort of makes you lose your awareness of time, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not inhibiting the body of a newborn infant."

It was Elsa's turn to giggle. No, Jack definitely looked at least as old as her – eighteen.

It wasn't until they had walked down two more streets that Elsa's mind suddenly pieced together the information. She stopped walking and clenched her stomach. Her heart felt like it almost stopped.

"Jack," she called.

He paused without turning around. "Yeah?"

"How old are you?"

He didn't answer.

"You said that time froze in Bergis when the Frost started, but it didn't freeze for you," Elsa continued. "You continued aging."

No response.

"But you just said that if your time had stopped, you'd have the body of a newborn infant. Back in the library, you told me that you've been in Bergis since you were born. Did the Frost begin when you were born?"

Still, there was not a word of reply. Elsa stood with her bare feet in the snow, hugging her own shaking body which was not shaking in cold but in fear; why she was fearful, however, she didn't quite now. Jack was a nice boy. He was nothing to be afraid of.

But Elsa suspected that Jack was hiding something big from her, and the thought made her feel uneasy. She wanted him to say something – anything, whether it be "yes" or "no" or even "maybe" because she could use whatever clue he provided here to try to piece together his story that he refused to tell her.

"Jack," she begged. "Say something."

Finally, Jack looked over his shoulder and gazed squarely into Elsa's eyes. A mysterious smile crept onto his face, and he raised his finger to his lips.

He turned back around so that she was looking at his back, which receded slowly as he continued walking forward. "Bergis is a rather interesting district," he piped. "Too bad it's so whitewashed. A little color here and there couldn't hurt. Anyway, I'd like to get to the clothing store as quickly as possible so that you can choose what clothes you want to keep. Let us hurry with this tour, shall we?"


End file.
